Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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43. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the extent to which animal health, husbandry and processing standards applicable throughout the country and the EU will continue to be observed in full after Brexit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41631/20]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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European Union legislation provides for a set of harmonised rules to ensure that food and feed are safe, and to ensure a high level of human, animal and plant health, as well as animal welfare along the agrifood chain. Primary responsibility for ensuring that the obligations set out in Union legislation are met rests with operators. The official controls regulation is clear that the responsibility to enforce Union agrifood chain legislation lies with member states, whose competent authorities monitor and verify, through the implementation of official controls, that relevant Union requirements are effectively complied with and enforced.

My Department is one such competent authority and other Departments and State agencies also have a role in this regard. My Department will continue to meet its obligations in respect of the official controls regulation, irrespective of Brexit. From 1 January 2021, obligations to carry out official controls will continue to apply equally across all EU member states, including in respect of the need to carry out sanitary and phytosanitary checks on imports of animals and goods from all third countries, including Great Britain. In this regard, my Department has invested significantly in staffing, IT and infrastructure to ensure that it is able to continue to efficiently carry out the official controls on goods entering Ireland from Great Britain after the end of the transition period.

In simple terms, animal health, animal husbandry and processing standards are applicable throughout the country and the EU, and they will continue in full after Brexit. Our requirements do not change. What changes is the fact Britain becomes a third country, so the amount of those checks and balances we have to put in place will be greatly enhanced because of our very significant trade with Great Britain. It makes it all the more important to, hopefully, get a trade deal over the line in the next couple of days. While we would prefer it was not so late, we have all of our preparations in place to account for every eventuality. Irrespective of what happens in the coming days and weeks, there will be disruption and change on 1 January in terms of the role Great Britain will play as a trading partner.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Does the Minister of State expect that imports into third countries like Great Britain after 1 January will be subject to the same rigorous rules in respect of husbandry, processing and animal health? Will this be rigorously enforced to ensure that there will be no undermining of the standards that apply here and no undermining of the Irish producers in the context of what they are competing with?

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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That is a fair point. At the end of the day, we control what we control on the EU side, and we have to presume that what the final set of agreements is would have reciprocal approaches on both sides. What we have always wanted, both in Ireland and as part of the EU, is as close a working relationship as possible with Great Britain. A huge amount of our trade, particularly in the agrifood sector, goes both ways across the Irish Sea. Anything other than a close working relationship makes no sense for either of us. One would definitely hope that common sense prevails in that regard.

In the context of what we can control, we control our own measures. Irrespective of what is going to happen in terms of a trade deal and whether that can be struck in the coming days, the fact is that circumstances will change after 1 January. My Department, through the State agencies, is working closely with the Irish agrifood business and processors to make sure they are prepared for those changes in dealing with Britain as a third country.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Again, the most important thing in the kind of situation that is likely to emerge after 1 January is the degree to which the rules are enforced. Any breaches of the rules that go unchallenged would have a serious knock-on effect. Can the Minister of State be assured, and in turn reassure the House, that any breaches to introduce product into third countries and, subsequently, into EU countries will be vigorously contested and pursued?

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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What I can guarantee is that Ireland, at the heart of the EU, will maintain the integrity of the Single Market, which is critical. We see our place as being at the heart of Europe. We see the benefits for the Irish people, the Irish agrifood business, farmers and food producers to be at the heart of a European Union that is a trading bloc of 500 million people. As a very active member of that European Union, we will not allow the Single Market to be undermined and we will vigorously uphold that market. That is why the EU cannot accept proposals which impact on the integrity of the Single Market or that damage the long-term political or economic interests of the Union, of which we are an integral part. I assure the Deputy of that.

At the same time, we would like to see as close a working relationship with the UK as possible, and we are doing everything on our side to try to make that happen. For any deal to happen, there has to be agreement on both sides. We have always been extremely clear within the EU as to what our goals are around the level playing field and similarity of standards. We will continue to uphold them into the future.